I normally do not get into discussions about the real estate world on this blog…but I thought I would take a few minutes to discuss my thoughts on Zillow’s announcement.

Today Zillow announced that they are opening up the site to brokers, agents, and anyone who owns a home to list their home for sale - for free. This is a move many anticipated - and now it is reality.Â

So what does this mean? It does not mean much for LakePlace.com (the majority of our listings are not in the Zillow database - yet - when they are, we will definately consider using their service!) - but it is probably scaring the pants off of Trulia.com - a real estate website that raised about $8M earlier this year. You see, Zillow has a much larger war chest, a much more experienced management team, a much more robust website, a much larger database of real estate info, a much larger user base…and now they will be competing on Trulia’s home turf. While trulia is celebrating a milestone - many are predicting a slow (or not so slow) and painful death.